Thoughts on print making techniques

I learnt a lot from the possibilities of print making, and have taken every opportunity to experiment and to try some other techniques.

Etching and Aquatint –

I really enjoyed some of my experiments especially ‘sugar lift’ with the first type I worked with using caster sugar. The ‘3 figures in a room’ piece produced some great results in the way that the sugar solution produced marks and a textural quality.  Using raspberry jelly for the ‘sugar lift’ gave a different effect but I was a little timid with its use because I had to use the solution quickly while it was warm – the caster solution could be used in its cold state and I could therefore take more time over the painting with it on the copper plate.

Screen Prints:

I went back and wanted to make some more precisely registered prints.  I decided to use one of the photographs I had made of the hoodie.  The results were quite good, but Carl Rowe commented that he liked the one that had more printing errors and a more random approach. So I decided to revisit this image and use it more experimentally – like using the central image to make a pattern and varying the backgrounds and trying to break out of the rectangular format of the paper and the printable screen area.

Sonya suggested I might print the same colour over itself but reduce the printable area – the effect was really interesting and not what I would have expected – the tone (I think) changed on the over print and produced a different shade (?) of the same colour… I was trying on this print to produce something abstract and akin to a Rothko. I.e. an abstract image which seems to hang in space… the edges vaguely defined and the colours fading and blending into a haze or dream like quality..something Carl mentioned I might try to aspire to – the dream bit not the Rothko..heaven forbid…!

These prints worked well… but I left only one or two of them in different stages.. but I used the resulting abstracts as a base to over print with the hoodie image…. Again the results were quite loose and interesting….

I am keen after these experiments to do some more print making … I visited the ‘Fitzwilliam Museum’ in Cambridge and saw a wonderful large 3-piece etching by Hughie O’Donoghue in B&W that was both abstract and loosely figurative if that’s possible..?  It was of the crucifixion and this appealed to my use of Christian imagery but it was the quality of the mark making with the print and its scale that really excited me…. I’ve been looking at more of his work online and in books in the library and have made some copies of images that I especially like..  again his work that I like most had the quality which Carl talked about to me about having a dream like quality, or inhabiting that moment between waking from sleep… a hazy images that leave something to the imagination… something that is both there but eludes capture… I wonder how I can achieve that and I need to both experiment more and to look at other artists whose work might achieve a similar effect….